In order to operate on a wireless network, a wireless device (which can include, but is not limited to a wireless phone) generally must be a subscriber on the network, neglecting for cases in which a wireless devices operates in a roaming mode on a foreign network. To identify the device to the network as a subscriber, a wireless provider generally undertakes a practice referred to herein as “activation,” in which the phone is identified to the network using an identifier (such as an international mobile subscriber identifier (“IMSI”) or similar identifying number, which, in many cases, is encoded on a subscriber identity module “SIM” in the wireless device). In a general sense, this process involves creating, in a home location register (“HLR”), a record for the device; in some cases, the record comprises the identifying number, as well as an addressing number (e.g., a phone number for a wireless phone), such as an international ISDN number (“MSISDN”) or similar number. This record identifies the device to the network and provides information about the capabilities of the device. Without such a record in an HLR, the device generally will be inoperable on the wireless network.
With the recent trend toward “smart” devices that have the need and/or ability to communicate with other devices has arisen a need to provide communication infrastructure for such devices. There are several possible solutions to address this need. One possibility is wired connectivity; however, wired solutions tend to be cost-prohibitive. Some wireless solutions (e.g., WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.) are feasible in certain circumstances yet lack the transmission range to be truly effective in every situation.
Merely by way of example, one potential application of such smart devices is in situations in which telemetry data needs to be transmitted to a central data collector, such as in the case of “smart” utility meters and the like. Typically, such devices will need to send data to a data collector that may be many miles from the utility meter, and technologies such as Bluetooth and WiFi provide insufficient transmission range to support such an application.
Wireless telephone networks, however, can provide virtually unlimited range because as long as the smart device is within a transmission cell, the device can communicate via the public switched telephone network (“PSTN”) with any data collector that has connectivity with such a network (either directly, through the Internet, etc.). Such devices, however, typically need only sporadic access to communication capabilities, and provisioning such devices with permanent identifiers (such as permanent MSISDN) is a relatively inefficient use of such resources.
Accordingly, there is a need for more robust techniques for activating wireless devices on wireless networks, and/or for permitting occasional use of a wireless network by wireless devices without permanently committing scarce resources to such devices.